It is becoming more and more common practice to include purification means in the exhaust systems of vehicle engines for the purpose of purifying exhaust gases, such as particle filters, NOx traps, etc., for example.
By way of example, these purification means serve to trap undesirable polluting emissions and then to process them during a regeneration stage.
The regeneration stage needs to be triggered regularly, for example as a function of the load state in the purification means, with this being done by the controller that controls operation of the engine.
These various means are well known in the prior art and they are not described in greater detail below.
It should merely be observed that this regeneration is generally triggered by increasing the fuel quantity injected into the engine so as to enrich the air/fuel mixture, thereby causing the temperature of the exhaust gases to rise in order to trigger regeneration in the purification means, for example by triggering combustion of particles trapped in a particle filter.
Unfortunately, this engine fuel consumption information is also transmitted over an on-board data transmission network to other equipment of the vehicle, such as, for example, means for managing fuel consumption information.
By way of example, these means for managing fuel consumption information include means for displaying instantaneous fuel consumption information to the users of the vehicle, and means for calculating mean fuel consumption and vehicle range.
At present, during a regeneration stage of the purification means, the users of the vehicle looking at the display means perceive a significant increase in the fuel consumption for no apparent reason, and this frequently causes them to take the vehicle to the after-sales service of the corresponding manufacturer, complaining that something has gone wrong, when in fact this is not the case.